This time of year its so delightful to have fresh from the garden, or CSA, salads. Keeping with that theme, this is a vinagrette I really like. Its inspired by a recipe from Fireless Cookery by Heidi Kirschner.
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp dry mustard whisked into 1 Tbs water (I've used a squirt of regular mustard in a pinch)
1/2 Tbs fresh basil, finely chopped
1/2 Tbs fresh fennel (the fringy looking top), finely chopped
2 Tbs water
Whisk it all together and serve. In addition to traditional green salads, I like to use this over pasta salads and bean salads as well. Foods like these are wonderful in the hotter weather and they don't scream VEGAN which is nice if you're entertaining omnivores.
I think a basil plant is a very worthwhile plant to grow because the flavor enhances so many dishes. If you're a pesto fan, like my daughter, its a must have. This year I'm growing regular basil and purple leaf basil.
BTW, if you're not a fennel fan substitute in your favorite herb instead. If you're using dried herbs, decrease the amounts to 1/2 tsp of each.
I'm off to continue cutting the remaining old jeans into quilt squares. The squares take up so much less space than the jeans did. Lately, I've been trying to work on storage solutions for future projects. Certainly saving only the useable pieces will help with many future projects.
Happy Friday!
6 comments:
Hi Katie,
You should try the Basil & Tomato Vinaigrette in La Dolce Vegan. It's quite tasty. I joined a local CSA this year, thanks to you. First pickup is in mid-June. I can't wait!
Michelle
That sounds good, I'm heading to the kitchen in a minute to check that recipe out.
I'm so glad to hear that you've joined a CSA. Its such a wonderful way to expand your veggie repertiore and get pesticide free foods affordably.
Katie, I mean to ask this each time you talk about the jeans quilt. We've saved jeans for years wanting to do one, but i've hesitate. I'm afraid that sewing through the denim will be really difficult. (I have a 6 year old machine, it has special needles for denim, and I've quilted as an adult and sewed clothes as a kid. So I'm not new to sewing. But for some reason, denim worries me. I've never made anything out of denim and the jean weight scares me. Relatedly, did you sew over jeans seams at all or did you avoid them on the squares? [The whole "can only work on sewing projects when the toddler is sleeping" makes it difficult to think of doing this anytime soon. But maybe....]
Annmarie,
My sewing machine is an ancient Graybar (I got it from my local freecycle group and it had a repair ticket from 1971 in the owners manual). I was a little worried as well but it does fine with denim. I'd imagine since you're machine is so much newer it wouldn't be a problem.
I did avoid the denim seams. I either cut around them when I cut my squares or I picked the seams off. Make your squares (mine are actually rectangles) a size that works best with the denim you have. My very technical and precise tracer was a puzzle box.
The majority of the time I was sewing through no more than two layers of denim. I did leave some pockets in the middle of the squares to make it more fun for the kids and there's even a carpenter's loop on one square.
The biggest problem I had was the overall weight of the denim, and the resulting tugging, as I sewed the backing on.
Thanks for the rectangle idea. You had mentioned earlier offsetting the pieces so that you didn't have four pieces in a corner--the rectangles are a great solution to that as well as to the shape of jeans! I always figured the squares would be pretty small if you missed seams. I sewed a king sized quilt out of flannel, so I understand the weight! (I didn't attach the back or quilt it. I paid for it to be done.) Now I'm getting excited to make that jeans quilt for my husband!!!!
Annmarie,
That's great! Here are the measurements for the tracers that I used. I thought you might find them helpful.
For full rectangles:
6 3/4 inches by 7 3/4 inches
For half rectangles (to be used on the ends of alternating rows):
6 3/4 inches by 4 1/2 inches
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